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Atlas Mugged
"Atlas Mugged", also titled "Episode 2", is the second episode of Telltale Games' Tales from the Borderlands. Chapter Summary To learn more about the Gortys Project, the group sets off in Fiona and Sasha's caravan for another Atlas facility in the abandoned town of Old Haven. They are bombarded by Helios' moonshot cannon, and Rhys and Vaughn fall off the damaged caravan in their escape. As they trek through the desert, Rhys and Vaughn are confronted by Vasquez, who they escape with help from Handsome Jack and Loader Bot. Fiona and Sasha detour to Hollow Point to have the mechanic Scooter repair the caravan. They visit Felix's home and discover Felix betrayed them to protect them from August's boss Vallory. Fiona and Sasha are attacked by Vallory's thugs, Finch and Kroger, and the Vault Hunter Athena, and they leave for Old Haven. At the town's Atlas facility, the group is ambushed by Vasquez and August, who force Fiona and Rhys to construct the Gortys unit. Rhys accidentally triggers the facility's security, and he must choose between trusting Fiona or Jack to get to safety. Plot As depicted at the end of episode 1, Rhys and Fiona activate a device that provides a map of Pandora as part of the Gortys Project . Rhys becomes startled (as the player knows, due to him seeing a hologram of Handsome Jack ) and runs off. Fiona, Vaughn, and Sasha attempt to take a closer look at the map but end up inadvertently closing it. This seems to alert a nearby terminal that is requesting a retinal scan and Fiona is presented options. The computer only accepts specific scans and threatens to alert a General Pollux. Hearing a beeping sound, the trio moves towards a box somewhat resembling a coffin. Inside is Pollux's body. The three of them are unable to remove the body from the box, so Sasha suggests taking out one of the eyes for the scan. Fiona accomplishes this with a spork. After the retina scan is complete, the computer plays a video log from Athena sent from the town of Old Haven, followed by a message from Pollux urging any viewer to release him from suspended animation. As the characters realize they have inadvertently killed him, Rhys falls off a railing and onto the floor, covering the characters in his blood (an event that Rhys disputes, as that much bloodloss would have killed him). The scene briefly moves forward back to the Stranger holding Rhys and Fiona hostage, and we now see Rhys' version of the events. After Handsome Jack appeared, Rhys follows him up the stairs and Jack becomes annoyed with Rhys' talking. Jack is unable to rip Rhys' throat out and doesn't understand why. Rhys explains that he is only a hologram, the real Handsome Jack died years ago. The actual conversation is determined by the player. A second attempt to remove Rhys' throat causes Rhys to back up and inadvertently fall backwards over a rail to the lower floor and hits his head with an impact that should have knocked him cold (and was not nearly as bloody as Fiona suggested). It also causes Handsome Jack to disappear. Moonshots (missiles) are being sent from Helios to the bandit hideout where the characters are located and they escape in Felix's nearby caravan. During the escape, the caravan is pursued by a Rakk Hive. With some deft maneuvering, Rhys is able to trick the Rakk Hive into taking a fatal moonshot, but he and Vaughn become separated from the girls and the story focuses on Rhys. Handsome Jack reappears in his holo form visible to Rhys only and Rhys attempts to either explain it to or hide it from Vaughn. After contact with Yvette on Helios, the characters find themselves face to face with Vasquez who orders them to dig their own graves at gunpoint. The conversation changes based on player input but eventually ends with Rhys and Vaughn escaping and being chased by Vasquez. Who should show up but their pal Loader Bot (well, "pal" depends on the choices the player made with Loader Bot in previous encounters). Rhys and Vaughn discuss whether to go to Old Haven or Hollow Point, and Loader Bot flies them them to whichever location the player chooses. The dialogue between Rhys and Vaughn begins to devolve into long strings of "bro" (Bro, Bro, Bro, Bro bro bro, Bro, you know Bro?) At this point, the scene briefly goes back to Fiona, Rhys and their captor.'' Rhys angrily says that he and Vaughn don't actually talk that way, revealing this dialogue to be another one of the exaggerations made during the telling of the story. '''If Rhys and Vaughn head straight to Old Haven', they find the facility nearly abandoned. Rhys looks around and finds three power boxes, which the player has to figure out how to get them working. Once it's done, several buildings rise up from the ground to reveal a large door with the Atlas logo on it. August shows up with thugs and holds Rhys at gunpoint. Together they enter the building. After a failed attempt to keep Rhys and Vaughn from flying out of the partially disabled caravan, Fiona and Sasha find themselves alone. They limp the caravan into a small town and find a shop owned by Scooter. After looking around (look for the loot box by the vending machine) Fiona runs into Scooter and needs to come up with a story to get Scooter to fix the caravan. After the player decides the conversation the player will get to choose a replacement skin for the caravan costing between $0 (just fix it) to $1000. Fiona and Sasha leave the shop on foot and head towards Felix's nearby house. After entering the house, Fiona searches the house and locates a safe. Inside is a black light, which she uses to search the house again for clues. She finds loose floorboards and removes them, finding a video message from Felix inside. It reveals that a powerful crime boss named Vallory has placed bounties on their heads, and him double crossing them was really a failed attempt to spare the girls from her wrath. Fiona then removes the lock box that is hidden in the floor and goes through the contents. She gets an uprade for her gun, and a package for Sasha. However, when Fiona offers Sasha the gift, Sasha refuses, still bitter at Felix. A couple of bounty hunters named Kroger and Finch break into the house and the girls have to escape. They grab their things and run, only to find themselves being pursued by Athena. If Rhys and Vaughn decided to go to Old Haven, Fiona hurls a stun grenade at Athena, incapacitating her long enough for the girls to head back to Scooter's shop where they see the fixed/upgraded (depending on players choices) caravan. After realizing Athena is still after them, they (depending again on choice) force their way back into the shop with Athena protesting behind them. They meet Janey Springs, who turns out to be Athena's girlfriend. Athena has removes her hood and hides her shield, and pretends that she knows nothing about an assassin nearby. Depending on the player's choice, Fiona either goes along Athena or tells Springs that Athena IS the assassin. Athena warns them that there are worse people out there who could be looking for them. Fiona and Sasha leave and head toward the location of Rhys and Vaughn. They also have the option of taking Athena's shield: doing so will incite no reaction at the time as Athena is unable to reveal her actions with Springs standing right next to her. They arrive at the Atlas site and notice the devastation. Regardless of player comment, Fiona believes that Athena made the mess and that they may have just gotten lucky. They enter the Atlas facility where Rhys and Vaughn are being held at gunpoint by August and his thugs. The player decides how Fiona will react, but either way, Vasqeuz shows up. If Rhys and Vaughn decided to go to Hollow Point, then Loader Bot battles Athena, forcing her to retreat. Fiona and Sasha find Rhys and Vaughn at Scooter's, trying to convince the latter that they own the caravan. Upon spotting Fiona and Sasha, Rhys refers to them as their friends. Fiona can either confirm or deny it. Either way, the four leave for Old Haven (with Athena watching them from Scooter's roof), and the events that would have occurred to Rhys and Vaughn had they gone to Old Haven in the first place play out, only with Fiona and Sasha present. This time, all four enter the Atlas building, only to be met by August and Vasquez. Loader Bot is commanded to attack Vasquez (either by Vaughn or Rhys) and Vasquez shuts it down using a universal remote. Vasquez heads down a corridor with Rhys and the unseen holo of Handsome Jack and August takes Fiona down another. Both characters have their Gortys pieces with them that they found back in the Gortys lab. Sasha and Vaughn are left behind, guarded by the thugs. Handsome Jack is trying to figure out how he knows Vasquez while Vasquez monologues about how he made it to the top and how Handsome Jack would always make time for him and punch him in the face (which he chooses to interpret as a sign of affection). Vasquez punches Rhys in the stomach as an example. The scene switches to Fiona and August and players control the conversation. If players ask why August is doing 'this', players will learn that August screwed Vallory by doing the Vault Key deal under her nose and now August has to convince Vallory that whatever the Gortys device leads them to, that it's worth more than the ten million that August never got. He hopes that this will keep Vallory from killing him. Then August asks about Sasha. Back with Rhys, Vasquez continues talking about his own accomplishments and character. Suddenly Jack remembers how he knows Vasquez. Vasquez used to be the bald headed man in the mail room who was getting hair implants. (Vazquez has a full head of hair in the game). Depending on the player's choice, Rhys makes fun of Vasquez for being a "wallethead." This greatly amuses Jack, but angers Vasquez, who threatens to have Rhys skinned to make a wallet. The two of the finally reach the end of the corridor, where a door opens into a large domed room. Rhys steps onto a platform with the Gortys piece, which lifts him up into the room's central platform. This puts up a shield, separating Vasquez and Rhys. August walks Fiona to the end of their corridor where she will need to interact with the console as well. This also activates an identical shield and lifts her up onto the same platform. Rhys and Fiona have to connect their consoles to reveal more information about the Gortys project. August and Vasquez, now back in the main room, remind them that their friends will be killed if the two of them do not comply. As soon as they put the consoles together, a metal ball forms and floats up between them. As Rhys reaches for it, it becomes compromised and several security bots show up surrounding them as well as their party who are still inside the building. Fiona wants to use a stun grenade on the bots, while Jack offers to use the cybernetics inside Rhys' head to disable the bots if Rhys will let him have access. The player must choose and the resulting cinematic ends the episode. In-Game Decisions Fiona Told Sasha to Help Fiona or Rhys? * Told Sasha to help Rhys - 78.4% * Told Sasha to help you - 21.6% Customized the caravan? * Decided against customization - 10.9% * Selected the Maliwan brand - 49.9% * Selected the Jakobs brand - * Selected the Scooter Special - Looked at Sasha's gift from Felix? * Didn't peek inside - 80.9% * Peeked inside - 19.1% What bullet did you use on Finch? * Shot Finch with shock damage - 29.9% * Shot Finch with corrosive damage - 33.6% * Shot Finch with incendiary damage - 36.5% Note: The last two are only available if Rhys and Vaughn go to Old Haven Tell Janey that Athena is lying? Take Athena's shield? Rhys Told Vaughn about Handsome Jack * Told Vaughn - 81.3% * Kept Handsome Jack a secret - 18.7% Old Haven or Hollow Point? * Chose to go to Hollow Point - 66.2% * Chose to go to Old Haven - 33.8% Brofisted Vaughn? * Brofisted Vaughn - 90% * Did not brofist Vaughn - 10% Trusted Fiona or Jack? * Trusted Fiona - 65% * Trusted Jack - 35% Impacts * Characters *Fiona *Sasha *Rhys *Vaughn *Handsome Jack AI *Hugo Vasquez *August *Athena *Janey Springs (determinant) *Kroger *Finch *Loader Bot Deaths * General Pollux * Several Crimson Lance soldiers Trivia * This episode was originally announced to have its release "6 to 8" weeks after Zer0 Sum. However, the projected release date passed, and the episode was released nearly two months behind schedule. This is referenced with Marcus's opening narration: "Yes, yes, it's been a while. Everyone knows." * The title of this episode is a reference to Ayn Rand's Novel, ''Atlas Shrugged. '' fr:Atlas Mugged ru:Atlas Mugged Category:Tales from the Borderlands episodes